Following the cabinet decision to ban all types of logging in the Ulu Muda Forest Reserve in Kedah, the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) has proposed that the whole area be managed as a state park.

Its president Dr Salleh Mohd Nor said adjacent forest reserves could function as a buffer zone for the Ulu Muda area, the state's main water catchment network with three reservoirs.

On Monday, Primary Industries Minister Dr Lim Keng Yaik announced the ban o­n all types of logging, including the Kedah government's heli-logging proposal, to preserve water quality in the 122,798-hectare area where timber was to have been harvested. The state will be compensated.